The present invention relates to tufting machines, and in particular, to tufting machines capable of producing a high-pile tufted product. Such machines may be used to produce artificial grass, and have been used to produce shag carpet.
During the tufting of a high-pile, cut pile material, the tuft legs of the yarn become extremely lively or springy immediately after being cut. This is particularly true in regard to polypropylene yarns. Accordingly, the free ends often may be pulled back through the backing material as they become trapped between neighboring needles and their associated yarn feed. Additionally, the cut yarn may enter the adjacent needle eye, and sometimes the adjacent needle may even sew through a previously formed loop in the case of loop pile. When any of these events occur, there is an obvious visual defect in the product.
According to the present invention, a tufting machine is provided which comprises a plurality of aligned needles arranged to reciprocate in a direction which, in use, is perpendicular to a backing material which is progressively fed through the machine; the machine having a hook associated with each needle oscillatably moveable, in use, to pick up yarn from its associated needle, a loop engaging surface of the hook being, in use, at least 50 mm below the backing material, and wherein each tuft is isolated from a tuft formed by an adjacent needle by a dividing plate which extends in the direction of needle reciprocation for at least 20% of the distance between the backing cloth and the loop engaging surface of the hooks.
By extending to this degree, the dividing plates prevent the free ends of yarn from coming into contact with neighboring needles.
Preferably, at least a major portion of each dividing plate is closer to its respective hook than to the backing material, as this is where the free ends of the yarn are formed.
Preferably, each dividing plate extends, i.e., has dimension in the direction of needle reciprocation, at least 30%, more preferably at least 50%, and possibly as much as 80% of the distance between the backing material and the loop engaging surface of the hooks.
Conventional tufting machines have a needle or reed plate which is essentially a series of fingers which support the backing material, between which fingers the needles penetrate during reciprocation. In one embodiment of the invention, the dividing plates may be extensions of the needle plate reed fingers. The tufting machine is provided with a support block on the bed plate on which the needle plate fingers, among other things, are mounted. The dividing plates may alternatively extend from the support block.
As a further alternative, the dividing plates may be mounted on a hook bar on which the hooks are mounted. However, in this case, the dividing plates would oscillate with the hooks.